Friday, June 5, 2015

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 10: Tonberry Crossing

Summary: Some more general monster and item hunting, but Zack kills a wandering Tonberry and unlocks an awesome-sounding quest line.


Mission: Seeking Precious Items > Looking for Items > Scavenger Hunt

-Monsters in the slums. Ok.

-That was new! My DMW modulated phase with Sephiroth’s image. Then it switch. Got a flash, and the images changed to summoned monsters! An ifrit picture, some silhouettes I didn’t remember, and it ultimately settled on a chocobo’s silhouette. (I think it was a chocobo at least.)



Chain Slash was the result, so nothing new there, but still. Interesting!


Looks a bit like Kha’zix, from League of Legends.

-My one complaint about combat in this game so far is that I can’t seem to zoom out. My camera is pretty close behind Zack, making it tough to assess the battlefield.

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Mission: Seeking Precious Items > Looking for Items > In the Depths of the Caverns

-This one’s listed as Hard.

-Not too tough, though. Some Bomb monsters and worms. The bombs can get tough since they spew out two fireballs with Fira, which I have to dodge. Got “Dark Matter.”


Bombs and worm: best friends.

-Aha!!! Just noticed what the “Ifrit Materia” does. It doesn’t actually let me equip it and summon Ifrit on command. Rather, it adds Ifrit to the DMW window (that’s what I saw earlier), and I think if the DMW rolls triple Ifrit, it’ll summon him for Hellfire.

That sounds a bit dangerous, to be honest. Like, if I’m against some fire-based monster, I could just randomly summon Ifrit to heal that monster?

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Mission: Seeking Precious Items > Looking for Items > Buried in the Caverns

-More monsters in caves. Come on, game. You can be more creative than this.

-The worms I encounter down here aren’t tough on their own, but they can “Stop” me. This is deadly in combination with monsters that I need to dodge.

-Really welcome gameplay design: when one worm stops me with “Thread,” other worms that try while I’m stopped miss those attacks. I can’t get chain-stunned. Thank the lord.

-no

-oh please no


 
-Yup. It's a tonberry. It’s looking at me, Ray. I don’t have to engage it. It’s an optional, and the real boss seems to be a Bomb nearby… but I kind of want to. I have a feeling I’ll regret this.



-He cast “Karma,” but it didn’t really seem to do anything. He then cast “Kitchen Knife,” started walking towards me, and I started screaming in real life in abject terror. But I seemed to dodge him long enough and ran around for back attacks, and somehow won.

-Huh. Didn’t get any awards. I wonder if killing him at least unlocks a mission.

-Just mastered my “Cure” materia.

Non-rhetorical question for y’all: Now that I’ve mastered a materia, does that mean the DMW will never roll to level it up? Or will it roll, sometimes land on the mastered materia, and thus waste the roll? 
 
Also, is there anything that “mastering” a materia means beyond just hitting the highest possible level? Like, does mastering a materia somehow let me use that spell even when the materia’s not equipped or any hidden stuff like that?

-Finished the mission and got two Lunar Harps for my troubles, used in the still-grayed-out materia fusion.

-HAHAHAHAH WTFFFFF

-YESSS

-or.. NOOOO

-Not sure. It’s one or the other.



-Killing that Tonberry unlocked a new category of missions for me: “Mysteries of the World.” There are four sub-categories within it, the only one of which I can yet see is “Tonberry Quests.”

-That’s right. There’s a whole chain of Tonberry quests. (Three.) This is really, REALLY exciting. Maybe it’ll give me backstory, and plot! Maybe I’ll get to learn how tonberries became such murderous tadpoles. OH GOD WHAT IF I GET TO SUMMON A TONBERRY

-Ok. Chill, Coldrun. First, finish up the last mission in the “Looking for Items” campaign.

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Mission: Seeking Precious Items > Looking for Items > Item in the Coal Mines II

-This one is listed as “Very Hard.” Here we go.

-New enemies here. An ostrich-type called “Replicon” and a beetle-type called “Bizarre Bug.” Bizarre Bug earns my instant enmity by poisoning me.



-There seems to be no point at all to exploring for secrets by clicking barrels, rock piles, etc. So far, the only thing like that I’ve found were the secret doors in that one story mission in Fort Tamblin. Beyond that it’s just silver treasure chests that hold anything.

-Really easy boss fight. A pack of those grass/celery monsters whose names I didn’t catch. Two quick Firas obliterate the pack. Got Hero Drinks.

-Winning that campaign opened up a new campaign in “Looking for Items,” one called “Zack, Treasure Hunter.” But the first mission is “Very Hard,” so I’ll hold off.

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Next time: I try the first of three “Tonberry Quest” missions.